


raised on highways

by aspartaeme



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, steve is a brat what else is new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 15:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20726867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspartaeme/pseuds/aspartaeme
Summary: Billy has spent his life looking for a prince. Steve kinda, maybe, fits the bill.





	raised on highways

**Author's Note:**

> 'my mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways.' - Melissa Albert, The Hazel Wood

When Billy was young, his favorite fairy tale was The Princess and The Pea. 

After each night’s screaming match was over, his mum used to crawl in Billy’s bed, take him in her arms, and read them the story. Night after night, over and over and over, until the edition was worn and frayed, until his mom wasn’t there and Billy’s nights ended with him bruised and bloodied and alone. 

He remembers her soft voice, telling him _someday you’ll find a princess of your own_, and Billy had been living with Neil long enough to know that biting back his _I don’t think I want that_ and forcing himself to turn his gaze away from the illustration of the prince, all brown hair and long legs, would maybe, hopefully, end up keeping Billy’s blood _inside_ his body for a while longer. 

— 

Years later, he meets Steve Harrington. _King Steve_, they say. True royalty. 

A princess if Billy ever saw one. 

Steve is bratty, and snobbish, and particular. Billy teases him mercilessly about his upper class upbringing, his polished manners, his delicate sensibilities. Calls him _princess_ every chance he gets, lights up at the way it makes Steve's porcelain cheekbones blush prettily. 

He doesn't know how _right _he is, how perfectly the nickname fits, until he does. 

— 

It's Saturday evening, and they're lounging on the most luxurious of the couches comprising the Harringtons’ living room, Billy half-sitting half-lying, watching Steve, who's been wriggling and squirming and _moving_ for the last fifteen minutes. 

Finally, Billy snaps. 

‘Fuck’s your problem, Harrington?’ 

Steve looks at him, one eyebrow raised, face set on a mask of haughtiness. 

‘How can you just - _sit _there?’ He sounds imperially offended, the way Billy presumes their royal highnesses around the globe sound when they ask for beige and get off-white instead. 

Billy narrows his eyes at him. 

Steve carries on, predictably unbothered by the lack of interest on Billy's part. 

‘I swear to everything holy, if I sit on this couch for one more second I'll bruise all over,’ he whines. ‘It's like it has _thorns_ growing out of it!’ 

Billy's still looking at him, thoroughly unaffected. 

‘Do you have _any_ idea how easily my skin gets damaged?’ Steve shrills, indignantly, the way only blue bloods are entitled to. 

Billy - has no excuse for himself, really. 

He's becoming dangerously susceptible to Steve's pout. 

He hoists himself up, makes a display of rolling his eyes, kisses the frown on Steve's forehead for good measure, starts swiping the couch cushion with his hands, looking for the offending item jeopardizing his boyfriend’s mental equilibrium. 

He finds - a _crumb_. 

One single crumb, presumably a residue of last night’s humble pizza dinner. 

The crumb shatters the moment Billy applies the slightest pressure. 

He looks back at Steve, incredulity in his eyes, finds him staring back, regal and unattainable. 

‘I _did _say I have sensitive skin,’ Steve offers unapologetically. 

Billy sighs, vexed and amused and a little bit in love. 

He thinks about fairytales, about the promise of true love made so many years ago. He thinks it’s some kind of twist of fate, how he’s spent years looking for a prince with brown hair, and how his prince ended up being a princess anyway. 

— 

He spends the rest of the evening snogging the royal hell out of Steve. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [tumblr](https://aspartaeme.tumblr.com/)


End file.
